Redemption
by Wraithfighter
Summary: Knights of the Old Republic: Takes place after KOTOR 2: The meeting of Revan and The Exile on some unknown world in some unnamed system. After the fight, one teaches the other about how far one can come back. Universe with a Male Revan and a Female Exile.


Peace.

A rare experience over the last few weeks, and one unlikely to be seen for a long while. The brilliant robes fashioned by the Star Forge rustled silently in the long grass, while their owner sat cross-legged, eyes closed, meditating in the open field.

_Feels like Dantooine…_

Darth Revan. Kyle Nolan. The Prodigal Knight. Hero of the Republic.

_I wish Bast were here. I wish Carth were here. Hell, HK would provide some welcome humor. Still, the silence is nice. Too bad that I've got about two more minutes of it until she gets here…_

Hate.

The armor of the Jal Shey clad over her body, the grass crunching beneath her feet, there is only one thing that she feels.

Hate.

Hate for the Jedi. Hate for the Sith. Hate for Kreia. Hate for those stronger than her. Hate for those weaker than her.

Hate for the one who sat in peace, who mocked her strength with his presence, who lead her down the path in the beginning.

The Exile. Kyri Delana. Annihilator of the Jedi. Destroyer of the Sith.

And just as she has only one feeling, she has only one thought.

_Death. He will die, and he will realize, when I push my blade into him, that there is no one who can match my power. My blade will drink his blood, and his power will become mine._

_Almost here, time to get ready._

A quick movement grabs the robes and wraps them around his body. A flick of the wrist pulls his solitary lightsaber from his belt. And a simple thought pulls the force around him, guarding him, shielding him, defending him from the prowess she possesses.

And, suddenly, a speck appears on the horizon. The speck becomes a dot. The dot grows to the size of an ant. Then a coin. Then a card. The dot becomes an armor-clad, lightsaber-wielding woman, charging at speeds not meant for living beings, coming down the slope of the hill.

And then she, the enemy, the new dark lord, the essence of everything he has been fighting, arrives, plowing through the wave of force, shrugging off the numbing stasis, fighting through the fears building in her mind, taking everything he throws at her and coming back for more.

And then she arrives. And only then does the battle truly begin.

_She's good. Three times she's come within a hair of hitting me. Malak wouldn't stand a chance. Good thing I'm not Malak._

The blades clash again and again. Her twin sabers glow the fires of hell, and strike at once, at separate spots, giving no quarter to his single blade of pure light. And yet, as fast as her blades hit, his swings faster, blocking every time.

She spins. She jumps. She feints, rushes, and throws. She strikes with such rage, such passion, such anger that any hit would mean death, with any weapon.

But the fight is with lightsabers, and one hit is all it takes. And, as is with true masters of the art, it is often that the winner isn't the one that swings harder, but the one that doesn't make a mistake.

Her foot catches on a stone.

She slips.

She is vulnerable.

She knows, without a doubt, that this is the end.

The silver blade descends. And everything goes black.

And light returns.

"So, you must be Kyri. Bast told me you were coming."

The voice of Revan. She was not dead. And, of course, she had to know why.

"Why spare you? Didn't need to kill you. So, what have you been up to since the war?"

"You have got to be kidding."

"It may surprise you, but I'm sorta out of the loop here. It's been a while since I've been in the Republic. And I haven't seen many of my former generals in a long time."

"Cut the crap. You know what I've done."

"Not entirely. Just that you seem to have killed a number of my friends."

"I know the darkness inside of you. You would like nothing better than to hear the way your former masters died. So, how about it? Want to know how they died?"

"One must know how they died, in order to know how they lived. If you feel you must brag, then do so."

"So you want to know how I did it? How I took Master Kai-Ell's lightsaber from him and shoved it through his heart?"

"Zez Kai-Ell died a long time ago. He never was the same after you were exiled. He might have been able to save you, though, had you wanted it. Not the most learned man, perhaps, but one of the few able to see the shades of grey in the force. A horrible act on your part, true enough."

"Maybe knowing that Kavar died slowly is what you want to hear? That the woman he had promised to defend died in front of him, that he failed her? How I took the war he helped create and killed him with it?"

"If you think you can rile me, you'd be mistaken. Its true, I was good friends with Kavar before I left for here. He was the only person who could hope to challenge me in a game of chess. But he never wanted war. He studied war like a scholar, but he never wanted to use it. I'll miss him, when I return to the Republic, but you won't turn me with his memories.

"Then Vrook it is. Vrook, the most hated of the Jedi. You may say you shed a tear, but can you seriously mourn _his_ death?"

"Easily. Maybe he was a bit too fervent in his belief in the code, but he did what he did in order to help us. Without Vrook, there would be no voice on the council in favor of the code. You could say he started out playing the devil's advocate, that he decided to always interpret the code literally. But how long does it take for the advocate to fully believe what he preaches? No, I didn't hate him, once I understood him."

"So what? You want me to tell you what I've done the last decade?"

"No."

"You want me to fight you some more?"

"If you feel you must, but you'll have to do it without your lightsabers. I may want you to be redeemed, but I'm no fool."

"Redeemed. You… You can't be serious."

"Of course I am."

"I've killed Jedi!"

"So?"

"I've assassinated rulers!"

"Your point?"

"I've killed innocents!"

"And?"

"I've triggered the destruction of the Republic!"

"You don't get it, do you? I don't care. You say you've killed Jedi? So have I. I've killed a lot more of them than you have. Hell, I turned more Jedi to the dark side than you've ever met. I've ordered the assassination of monarchs and heads of state. I slaughtered innocents for no reason at all. I even killed a man who looked at me funny; just to see what it was like. I'm directly responsible for a war that came within a hair's breadth of destroying the Republic."

"So that makes you perfect for making me pure and innocent? You're either an idiot or delusional."

"You don't know what I did after the Star Forge, do you? Before I went to Korriban, I hung around Coruscant. People came to me for help. A wife-beater, wrongly accused of murder. An ex-con, convicted of murder, who wanted to find his daughter. The scum of the universe, worst of the worst. And yet, I never met someone who had done something worse than me. Not even the cannibal. I know everything I did before Bast captured me. If I can be redeemed, anyone can. Even you."


End file.
